Apparatus for disintegrating fibrous material and for delivering disintegrated fibrous material

ABSTRACT

First and second carding units are provided. Each carding unit comprises a smooth feeder conveyor belt, a smooth covering conveyor belt extending over and parallel to said feeder conveyor belt to define a space therewith and moving in the same direction as the feeder conveyor belt, a carding drum for disintegrating fibrous material and for ejecting disintegrated fibrous material, and a pair of feed rollers for receiving fibrous material from said space between said feeder and covering conveyor belts and for feeding said fibrous material to said carding drum. The apparatus further comprises charging means preceding said covering conveyor belt of said first carding unit and adapted to charge fibrous material into said space between said feeder and covering conveyor belts of said first carding unit, and drive means for driving said feed rollers and for driving said feeder and covering conveyor belts of each of said carding units at a surface velocity which is higher than the surface velocity of the feed rollers of the same carding unit. The carding drum of said first carding drum is operable to eject disintegrated fibrous material onto said feeder conveyor belt of said second carding unit.

United States Patent [191 Fehrer 1 Oct. 21, 1975 [54] APPARATUS FORDISINTEGRATING FIBROUS MATERIAL AND FOR DELIVERING DISINTEGRATED FIBROUSMATERIAL [76] Inventor: Ernst Fehrer, Auf der Gugl 28, Linz, Austria[22] Filed: May 6, 1974 21 Appl. No: 466,869

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 24, 1973 Austria 4519/73 [52]US. Cl 19/96; 19/155 [51] Int. Cl. DOIG 23/00 [58] Field of Search19/82, 83, 96, 88, 89, 19/204, 105, 97.5, 205, 155

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,113,988 4/1938 Kershawl9/97.5

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 182,301 6/1955 Austria 19/204 20,45612/1882 Germany 19/96 357,727 10/1931 United Kingdom... 19/204 449,1346/1949 Italy 19/205 590;838 4/1959 Italy l9/82 Primary Examiner-DorseyNewton [5 7] ABSTRACT First and second carding units are provided. Eachcarding unit comprises a smooth feeder conveyor belt,

- a smooth covering conveyor belt extending over and parallel to saidfeeder conveyor belt to define a space therewith and moving in the samedirection as the feeder conveyor belt, a carding drum for disintegratingfibrous material and for ejecting disintegrated fibrous material, and apair of feed rollers for receiving fibrous material from said spacebetween said feeder and covering conveyor belts and for feeding saidfibrous material to said carding drum. The apparatus further comprisescharging means preceding said covering conveyor belt of said firstcarding unit and adapted to charge fibrous material into said spacebetween said feeder and covering conveyor belts of said first cardingunit, and drive means for driving said feed rollers and for driving saidfeeder and covering conveyor belts of each of said carding units at asurface velocity which is higher than the surface velocity of the feedrollers of the same carding unit. The carding drum of said first cardingdrum is operable to eject disintegrated fibrous material onto saidfeeder conveyor belt of said second carding unit.

4 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure U.S. Patent Oct. 21, 1975 APPARATUS FORDISINTEGRATING F IBROUS MATERIAL AND FOR DELIVERING DISINTEGRATEDFIBROUS MATERIAL This invention relates to apparatus for feeding lapmachines or the like, comprising a carding unit, which consists of afeeder belt conveyor, a pair of feed rollers, and a carding drum.

in a known apparatus of that kind the carding drum is succeeded by aweighing device, which ensures that the material is delivered to the lapmachine at a constant weight rate. The feeder belt conveyor is chargedby hand. Whereas this operation does not require special care, theintervals of time between successive charging operations must berelatively short because the length of the feeder belt conveyor islimited for structural reasons and the function of that belt conveyorwill be adversely affected if the layer of material on said conveyorexceeds an upper limit. For these reasons, the quantity of materialwhich can be charged to the feeder belt conveyor at one time is limited.

Other feeders, so-called fox feeders, have been disclosed, which consistof a material storage bin and a conveyor for continuously taking anddelivering material at a low rate. In these systems the bottom of thestorage bin consists of a conveyor belt, which moves the material to theupwardly inclined conveyor. Because the storage bin has a high capacity,the box feeders need not be charged only after much longer intervals oftime. On the other hand they have the disadvantage that they do notenable a uniform taking and delivery of the material because theconveyor consists in most cases of an upwardly inclined lattice apron,which is set with spikes, or a similar element which is not sufficientlyadaptable to the mass of material in the storage bin and for this reasontakes and delivers material in different quantities in different areasof the conveyor element.

An improvement has been afforded by another known feeding apparatus inwhich the material is taken from the storage bin by a conveyor whichconsists of a multiplicity of conveyor arms, which revolve in parallelplanes and are set with teeth at their ends and through a gratelike,slotted wall extend into the storage bin. That feeding apparatus too isnot entirely satisfactory. This is due to the fact that a circulation isimparted to the material in the storage bin by the revolving conveyorbelt which forms the bottom of the storage bin and by the boundary wallwhich is slotted like a grate. This circulation is due to the fact thatthe conveyor which forms the bottom of the storage bin continually movesthe material to the gratelike wall, where the material is dischargedonly at a low rate, whereas the remaining material rises and falls back.This continuous circulation in the storage bin causes the material tobunch whereby the continuous taking of the material at a uniform rate isadversely affected. As a result, the specific gravity and the bulk ofthe material taken from the storage bin by the conveyor varycontinuously. This fact results in undesired irregularities in the webwhich is subsequently formed.

It is an object of the invention to avoid these disadvantages andprovide an apparatus which is of the kind described first hereinbeforeand which can be charged with material in any desired quantities and inany desired intervals of time and yet ensures a delivery of the materialat a constant rate and with a constant specific gravity and bulk. Theapparatus should be comparatively simple and reliable in operation.

This object is accomplished according to the inven tion in that acovering conveyor belt is provided, which is disposed over the feederconveyor and moves in the same direction as the latter, in known manner,that the feeder conveyor belt and the covering conveyor belt havesmooth, spacedly opposite faces which extend parallel to one another,thattheir surface velocity is a plurality of the surface velocity of thefeed rollers, that the carding drum is succeeded by a second, identicalcarding unit, which comprises a feeder conveyor belt receiving thematerial ejected from the first carding drum and a covering conveyorbelt disposed over the feeder conveyor belt of the second carding unit,and that the surface velocity of the feed rollers of the sec 0nd unit isalso much smaller than the surface velocity of the smooth conveyor beltswhich feed said feed rollers. The first carding unit has a storage binassociated therewith and the material can be charged into said storagebin through a filling chute in any desired quantities and in any desiredintervals of time by hand or by a bale opener or the like. Because thetwo belt conveyors between which the supply of material is disposed havea higher surface velocity than the feed rollers, the material isretained before said rollers so that a continuous taking of the materialis enabled even when the material is intermittently supplied. The twoconveyor belts are smooth and for this reason can slip under or over thematerial retained before the pair of feed rollers and do not cause thematerial to be compressed. The material is not circulated before'thepair of feed rollers associated with the carding drum because suchcirculation is prevented by the sense of rotation of the feed rollersand because the two conveyor belts tend to move the material toward thefeed rollers. Because the two revolving conveyor belts are parallel toeach other, the conditions of the material before the feed rollers arealways the same so that the material is entrained by the feed rollers,disintegrated into individual fibers by the first carding drum andejected by the latter onto the feeder conveyor belt of the secondcarding unit at a constant rate. In the second carding drum, the sameoperations are performed so that the uniformity is increased further, asdesired. This eliminates the need for a succeeding weighing device orthe like because the two carding drums together ensure that the materialis delivered from the second carding drum to the lap machine at anexactly uniform rate.

Whereas it is already known to provide before a card or the like twoconveyor belts which are arranged one over the other and which act inthe same direction and are provided with a filling chute, the knownarrangements do not provide for a rate control but serve only forfeeding the material to the inlet of the card or the like. For thisreason the surface velocity of the conveyor belts corresponds to thesurface velocity of the feed rollers or feed roller and the two conveyorbelts do not extend parallel to each other but define a space whichtapers toward the entrance to the carding drum or the like.

To avoid a feeding of material to the second carding unit at a ratewhich is higher than the rate at which said second carding unit candeliver material to the lap machine, photo-electric sensing unit isprovided, which is disposed adjacent to the entrance to the spacebetween the conveyor belts of the second carding unit and whose lightbeam extends transversely to the direction of travel of the material anddeenergizes the means for driving the first carding unit, particularlythe pair of feed rollers thereof, when the beam is interrupted by thematerial which has built up on the feeder conveyor belt of the secondunit. When too much material has built up on the feeder conveyor belt ofthe second unit, the delivery of material by the first unit isinterrupted in that its feed rollers are stopped. When the material hasbeen conveyed further on the feeder conveyor belt of the second unit andthe light beam is free again, the

pair of feed rollers of the first unit are started again. Thisarrangement results in a simple but effective control of the entirefeeding apparatus.

An embodiment of the feeding device according to the invention is shownby way of example on the accompanying drawing in sectional sideelevation.

The feeding apparatus according to the invention is composed of twocarding units I, II. The first carding unit I comprises a feederconveyor belt 1, a pair of feed rollers 2 and a carding drum 3. Thefeeder conveyor belt 1 is particularly smooth. Another smooth coveringconveyor belt 4 extends over and parallel to the feeder conveyor beltand moves in the same direction as the feeder conveyor belt from amaterial receiving area to a material discharging area. The coveringconveyor belt 4 is preceded by a filling chute 5, which opens into thespace between the conveyor belts. The surface velocity imparted to thetwo conveyor belts l, 4 by respective pulleys ll, 12 is a multiple ofthe surface velocity imparted to the feed rollers 2 by their shafts 13,14. The carding drum 3 disintegrates the material into individual fibersand ejects the same onto the feeder conveyor belt 1 of the secondcarding unit II. A covering conveyor belt 4 extends over and parallel tothe feeder conveyor belt 1' and moves in the same direction as thefeeder conveyor belt 1'. The two conveyor belts l, 4 are succeeded by apair of feed rollers 2 and these are succeeded by a carding drum 3',which by means of an ejecting chute 6 delivers the disintegratedmaterial to the lap machine or the like. The two conveyor belts 1, 4'are also smooth, and the surface velocity imparted to them by pulleys15, 16 respectively is much higher than the surface velocity of the pairof feed rollers 2 rotated by drive shafts 17, 18.

A photo-electric sensing unit 7 is disposed adjacent to the entrance tothe space between the conveyor belts of the second carding unit II. Theapparatus 19 for driving the pair of feed rollers 2 of the first cardingunit I is deenergized whenever the light beam of the unit 7 isinterrupted by the material which has built up on the feeder conveyorbelt 1. i

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for disintegrating fibrous material comprising:

a. a first carding unit;

b. a second carding unit, each carding unit including 1. two elongatedconveyor belts having respective smooth, longitudinal faces spacedlyopposite each other in parrallel relationship,

2. first drive means for driving said belts at a predetermined commonvelocity of said faces in the same direction from a material receivingto a material discharging area,

3. a pair of feed rollers arranged in said material discharge area forreceiving material discharged from by said belts,

4. a carding drum arranged adjacent said feed rollers,

5. second drive means for driving said feed rollers at a surfacevelocity smaller than said common velocity of said faces and for therebytransferring material discharged by said belts to said carding drum; and

c. charging means for charging the material to be disintegrated to saidconveyor belts of said first card ing unit,

arranged for discharging material received from the feed rollers of saidfirst carding unit to the belts of said second carding unit.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further compris- I ing dischargemeans for discharging disintegrated fibrous material from the cardingdrum of said second unit.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said charging meansinclude a chute open toward one of the conveyor belts of said firstcarding unit.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising sensing meansfor sensing the amount of fibrous material between said faces of theconveyor belts in said second carding unit adjacent the materialreceiving area, said sensing means being operatively connected to thesecond drive means of said first carding unit for stopping the feedrollers of said first carding unit in response to a sensed predeterminedamount of fibrous material.

1. Apparatus for disintegrating fibrous material comprising: a. a firstcarding unit; b. a second carding unit, each carding unit including 1.two elongated conveyor belts having respective smooth, longitudinalfaces spacedly opposite each other in parrallel relationship,
 2. firstdrive means for driving said belts at a predetermined common velocity ofsaid faces in the same direction from a material receiving to a materialdischarging area,
 3. a pair of feed rollers arranged in said materialdischarge area for receiving material discharged from by said belts, 4.a carding drum arranged adjacent said feed rollers,
 5. second drivemeans for driving said feed rollers at a surface velocity smaller thansaid common velocity of said faces and for thereby transferring materialdischarged by said belts to said carding drum; and c. charging means forcharging the material to be disintegrated to said conveyor belts of saidfirst carding unit,
 1. the carding drum of said first carding unit beingarranged for discharging material received from the feed rollers of saidfirst carding unit to the belts of said second carding unit.
 2. firstdrive means for driving said belts at a predetermined common velocity ofsaid faces in the same direction from a material receiving to a materialdischarging area,
 2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, furthercomprising discharge means for discharging disintegrated fibrousmaterial from the carding drum of said second unit.
 3. Apparatus as setforth in claim 1, wherein said charging means include a chute opentoward one of the conveyor belts of said first carding unit.
 3. a pairof feed rollers arranged in said material discharge area for receivingmaterial discharged from by said belts,
 4. a carding drum arrangedadjacent said feed rollers,
 4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1,further comprising sensing means for sensing the amount of fibrousmaterial between said faces of the conveyor belts in said second cardingunit adjacent the material receiving area, said sensing means beingoperatively connected to the second drive means of said first cardingunit for stopping the feed rollers of said first carding unit inresponse to a sensed predetermined amount of fibrous material.
 5. seconddrive means for driving said feed rollers at a surface velocity smallerthan said common velocity of said faces and for thereby transferringmaterial discharged by said belts to said carding drum; and c. chargingmeans for charging the material to be disintegrated to said conveyorbelts of said first carding unit,